The goal of this Career Development Award (K23) is to enable Dr. Lloyd-Richardson to develop the expertise needed to become an independent scientist studying innovative behavioral strategies to reduce Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk factors in young adults. Building upon Dr. Lloyd-Richardson's training in adolescent smoking, this award will enable her to acquire skills in a complementary area, behavioral intervention to improve physical activity and dietary behaviors among young adults, and to translate these into clinical and community-level interventions. Training is proposed in the following areas: (1) clinical research experiences in behavioral strategies to change diet and exercise behaviors; (2) qualitative research training to identify barriers to risk factor reduction, as viewed by young adults attending college; (3) training in the translation of qualitative and quantitative data to health promotion efforts and public policy. The resources available at Brown University, the high quality of mentorship afforded by Dr. Wing and co-mentors Drs. Brownell, Nichter, Jakicic, Niaura, and collaborator Dr. Marcus, and the coursework plus hands-on research experiences will provide an excellent environment for gaining the skills necessary for obtaining the long-term goal of becoming an independent researcher in the area of CVD risk reduction in young adults. The link between CVD and behavioral risk factors, including physical activity, nutrition, and smoking, is clear. Prevention of CVD risk in young adults is important because: CVD risk factors track longitudinally; health risk behaviors tend to cluster; and prevention is preferred to intervention. While popular media espouses the risks of gaining "The Freshman 15", little research has investigated weight gain and its predictors during the first year of college. We propose to examine the role of physical activity and dietary behaviors, as well as other psychosocial variables, in predicting weight change in a sample of 300 students during freshman year. The information obtained from this longitudinal study will be used to design and conduct a pilot intervention in years 04-05, the aim of which is to decrease the magnitude of weight gain in students during their freshman year, thereby hoping to increase healthful behaviors and to break the pattern of steady weight gain and physical inactivity common in adulthood.